Weekend Report: 'Avengers' Opens to $201 Million Overseas

by Ray Subers

Avengers: Age of Ultron

April 26, 2015

For the fourth weekend in a row, Furious 7 took first place at the domestic box office. Also, thanks to its record-setting performance in China, Furious 7 is now just the third movie ever to earn over $1 billion overseas.

Meanwhile, Avengers: Age of Ultron debuted in 44 international markets and earned a stunning $201.2 million. In nearly all of those markets, it opened above The Avengers and Iron Man 3.

For more coverage on Avengers and Furious 7, see the Around-the-World Roundup below.

In the U.S., Furious 7 eased 37 percent to an estimated $18.3 million. The last movie to hold on to the top spot for four weekends in a row was The Hunger Games, which did so back in March/April of 2012.

So far, Furious 7 has earned $320.5 million at the domestic box office. If it can hold decently against Avengers next weekend, it has a strong shot at reaching $350 million.Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 held on to second place with an estimated $15.5 million, which is down 35 percent from its opening weekend. In comparison, the first Paul Blart fell 32 percent at the same point. That's a minor difference, and is impressive considering the poor word-of-mouth and abysmal reviews. The movie has now grossed $44 million, and appears on track to finish above $75 million.

Playing at 2,991 locations, Age of Adaline opened in third place with an estimated $13.4 million. That's over $11 million less than The Other Woman (2014)—also targeted mostly at women—made on the same weekend last year. Adaline's content more closely aligns with Nicholas Sparks movies, though, and the opening compares favorably to The Longest Ride ($13 million) and The Best of Me ($10 million).

The movie's audience was 75 percent female, and 58 percent over the age of 25. With an "A-" CinemaScore, word-of-mouth should be decent; look for this to ultimately wind up north of $30 million. Home (2015) took fourth place with $8.3 million, which is off just 22 percent. The movie has now earned $153.8 million, which is ahead of past DreamWorks Animation flicks Megamind and Puss in Boots.

Rounding out the Top Five, micro-budget horror movie Unfriended fell 61 percent to an estimated $6.24 million. That drop isn't particularly surprising given how teen-heavy the audience was, and how poor word-of-mouth appeared to be. The movie has now grossed $25.2 million, and will likely wind up a bit under $35 million.

After two strong weeks in limited release, Ex Machina expanded to 1,255 locations this weekend. The sci-fi thriller took sixth place with an estimated $5.44 million; among recent movies with a similar expansion, this is roughly in line with Woman in Gold ($5.48 million) and well above It Follows ($3.8 million). It's also the biggest weekend ever for distributor A24 ahead of the Spring Breakers wide expansion ($4.89 million).

Reviews are great and word-of-mouth is positive, which suggests a lengthy run for a movie like this. Still, the Avengers is going to be tough to compete with next weekend; when the first Avengers opened three years ago, every other movie in the Top 10 dropped at least 48 percent.

Regardless, Ex Machina seems to have enough momentum to get it past Spring Breakers' $14.1 million total, which will make it A24's highest-grossing movie yet.

Playing at 1,043 locations, Little Boy opened outside the Top 10 with an estimated $2.83 million. Meanwhile, Russell Crowe's The Water Diviner opened to $1.25 million at 320 locations. The movie was a hit in Australia, though its story is very culturally specific: the Battle of Gallipoli is of profound importance there, but means little to U.S. audiences.Around-the-World Roundup

A week ahead of its U.S. release, Avengers: Age of Ultron opened to $201.2 million overseas. According to Disney, it was up 44 percent on the first Avengers movie, and up 24 percent on Iron Man 3 (in local currency, not in dollars).

Its top market was South Korea, where its $28.2 million debut ranked second all-time. A large portion of the movie is set in South Korea, and a handful of the Avengers swung through last week as part of their worldwide promotional tour. It was also huge in the U.K., where it scored the biggest superhero debut ever ($27.3 million).

It also opened to $16.2 million in Russia, which is neck-and-neck with Furious 7 for the top opening ever. It was second all-time in Brazil ($13.1 million) and third all-time in Australia ($13.1 million). Other top markets included France ($12.4 million) and Germany ($9.3 million).

There are a handful of other major territories on the way, including Spain and Mexico next weekend. China, which is sure to be the movie's biggest market, doesn't open until May 12th. The first Avengers earned over $86 million, which was a massive result three years ago. With the way that market has changed in the years since, it's hard to imagine Age of Ultron making anything less than $200 million.

Speaking of China—Furious 7 passed Transformers: Age of Extinction to become the highest-grossing movie ever there this weekend. Through 15 days, it's earned a remarkable $323 million, and could be on its way to $400 million before the end of its run.

Overall, Furious 7 added $69.7 million this weekend to bring its international total to just over $1 billion. The only other two movies to reach that milestone are Titanic and Avatar (both from director James Cameron). Furious 7 now ranks fifth all-time worldwide with $1.32 billion, and will move up to fourth place ahead of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 by the end of the week.